An interview with Lauren Bath about destination marketing

I had the chance to meet Lauren Bath thanks to a project I am currently working on.I was fascinated by her great pictures and very interested by the content of her posts (here the first one). I think destination marketing is a great tool of promotion and will become more and more popular in future. Enjoy the post!

1) Who is Lauren Bath?

I am a chef turned photographer thanks to a lucky app download that changed my life. Reading about Instagram in my RSS feed in August 2011 unlocked a chain of events that has seen me become Australia's first professional Instagram influencer working full time in destination marketing. Early last year I sat down and listed my passions, photography, travel and social media, and decided to invent a job that would see me pursue all three. Since then I haven't looked back.

2) What is exactly destination marketing?

This is a tough one for me to answer because my approach to destination marketing is not in any way traditional. How about I give you my definition? To me destination marketing is about showing the beauty of a destination and telling "its" story. With a combination of little square pictures, comments and engagement I strive to really show the essence of a destination. Since I'm not a commercial photographer I'm taking what I call "social media photographs". I feel like my style of shooting tells more about a place than image library shots with models and perfect sunny days. I often have just a few days in a region and sometimes in less than optimum shooting conditions and yet I still manage to start conversations and increase exposure for places some people have never even heard of. So just to summarize, I believe that destination marketing is spreading the word about the beauty of a destination through the eyes of a regular person.

3) What are the advantages in investing in this type of promotion?

There are actually a lot of advantages in investing in a social media campaign to market a destination. For one it is amazing value for money. I can provide images for your own social platforms, marketing reach to my organic and highly engaged following and insights into how many people are actually looking at your destination. Another advantage is that I showcase a destination as it really is, warts and all. I shoot through grey skies, rain and cloud. I shoot whatever catches my eye and I take the time to talk about my experience and answer questions. I believe that there is a market out there for every destination, you just need to find it. Social Media is not generic or pushy or "ad-like", at least not the way I do it. I genuinely love discovering new places and taking my friends and followers for the journey. Because of the amount of work I have done I am now putting together bigger campaigns with multiple digital influencers and as a group it's possible to attract millions of impressions on a brand or destination. Powerful stuff, real stuff and cheaper than traditional advertising and marketing.

If you want to know more about Lauren Bath, you can follow her on Instagram @laurenepbath or on Facebook Pirie Bath Photography. I am sure you won't regret it!